Moving Students in Math & ELA MCAS:

Using Innovation and Targeted Intervention

Who We Are…• TechBoston Academy’s Mission

– TechBoston Academy’s essential belief is that by providing an environment that is both nurturing and challenging, every student can learn and develop into a responsible citizen. TBA offers a college preparatory curriculum, which includes interdisciplinary project-based learning where technology is the bridge that connects the students to their learning experiences

• TechBoston Academy’s Vision– Opportunities-Technology-Education

• Who we serve– 375 students; 75% free and reduced lunch; 70% boys; 21%

SPED; 3% ELL; 30% English as another language; 60% African American; 30% Latino; 10% Asian and White; 50% have not made benchmark in math or ELA prior to coming to TBA

Key Strategies

• Strong Teacher Student Relationships

• Small Teacher/Student Ratio

• Adult Development Model

• Distributed Leadership and Teacher Leadership

• Integration of Technology

• Risk Analysis & Targeted Integration of Resources

• Cross Certified Teachers

• Interdisciplinary Curriculum

• Extended School Day

A Model of Readiness

• Readiness to Learn

• Readiness to Teach

• Readiness to Act

General Academic Focus

• Technology Integration– The core of our mission: Bridge to learning

– Technology Integration Plan

• Interdisciplinary Approach– Deeper Learning

• Vertical Alignment– Departments operate as a unified team with a

unified approach - unifies academic rigor

• Professional Development– Integral part of TBA culture

Beginnings

• Small School Culture

– Started off as informal

– Refined to current data driven process

• Department Liaisons

– Developed current shared leadership model

– Departments assumed responsibility and shared best

practices across content areas

• Common Rubrics

– Focus on writing across the curriculum, critical

thinking, and problem solving

MCAS in the Math Classroom

• Analyze freshman PTS scores to get a benchmark of student skill level

• Coordinate between 9th and 10th grade to identify content strengths and weaknesses

• Build MCAS prep classes into the schedule

• Build MCAS prep into 10th grade math curriculum

• Have students take two full length MCAS practice tests

• Analyze practice test scores to determine which strands students need the most intervention

• Simulate various aspects of the test

• Organize after school bootcamps that offer additional preparation

MCAS in the ELA Classroom• Administer writing prompts and objective tests with open response

questions

• Use actual MCAS tests as practice tests and simulate testing environment and procedures

• Analyze data from past performance, current classwork, and practice tests to group students based on common needs– Potential for Advanced, Proficient, At Risk

• Conference with individual students and allow time to improve

• Communicate with teachers, administrators, and students to identify students who need extra support and should be pushed

• Offer individual students targeted interventions– After-school and in-school sessions, office hours, learning centers, writing

enrichment, tutoring, one-on-one with specialists, additional reading and writing assignments

• Reinforce key skills in class– highlighting and annotating texts. supporting ideas with specific examples and

direct quotes with MLA citations, writing unified paragraphs using highlighted example, producing well-written five-paragraph essays using Inspiration (teacher/student), using rubrics to assess student writing, and peer edit

Benefits of Practice Tests

• Heightens awareness and competition

• Encourages conversation

• Changes attitude toward testing

• Builds relationships

• Increases confidence

• Sets sights on the Adams Scholarship

Students…

• Understand how excellence on the MCAS can qualify them for the Adams Scholarship

• Understand structure and importance of the MCAS

• Understand the different strands and question types, and understand the scoring system of the MCAS

• Are Invested in the process. Transparency by teachers let's students know what they have to do to excel on the MCAS. Students genuinely get excited about the test and test prep

• Track their own progress in an personalized Excel database

Student Day• 70 minute classes

– Discretionary days are used for MCAS prep

– Curriculum accelerated to allow 4-5 weeks of MCAS prep directly prior to the exam

– Students self grade all work to identify strengths and weaknesses

• Boot Camps– Held after school and are completely voluntary

– 20+ problems completed each session

- Snack provided

• Lunch Sessions – Students are offered premium lunch by working on MCAS questions through lunch

– Question of the day

– Students earn raffle tickets by correctly answering the question of the day

• Technology– Students record questions they answered in class, MCAS prep class, bootcamps, lunch

sessions and questions of the day in an Excel database. Within that database they are able to do a total question count, record their progress and over percentage of correct answers by strand

The Extras

• Heavy utilization of juniors as tutors

• Junior assembly at the beginning of the year that announces Adams Scholarships. Sophomores invited to get an early view into the MCAS hype

• Outside tutors hired for at risk students. One–on–one tutoring built directly into the schedule for these students

• Hype: Posters, Headmaster assemblies, contests, raffles, problems of the day, afterschool, MCAS pizza parties, weekend sessions at the BPL, award plaque posted at the school for students who have earned a perfect score, competition between years-students know what the percentage to beat is

Contact

TechBoston Academy Website: www.techbostonacademy.org

• Mary Skipper – Headmaster - mskipper@techboston.org

• Lisa Martinez – Chief Academic Officer - lmartinez@techboston.org

• Mary Teixeira – Registrar and Grants Manager - mteixeira@techboston.org

• Justin Desai – Co-Math Department Liaison – jdesai@techboston.org

• Nora Vernazza – Co-Math Department Liaison – nvernazza@techboston.org

• Nicole Pisano – English Department Liaison – npisano@techboston.org